Locarno convinced his team members – Wesley Crusher, Sito Jaxa and Jean Hajar – that the accident was Albert's fault and persuaded them to ultimately cover up the fact that they performed a prohibited maneuver and lie at the subsequent hearing. However, the truth was discovered by CaptainJean-Luc Picard who believed that Locarno wanted to end his Academy career in a blaze of glory and that he convinced the other team members to learn the Kolvoord starburst for the commencement demonstrations, allowing Locarno to graduate as a living legend. Outraged, Picard confronted Wesley Crusher about it, asking him to either come forward or else he would do it for him. Locarno, who had always insisted that everything he did was for his friends and the team, took full responsibility for the accident and was subsequently expelled from the Academy. Locarno made a passionate plea to the inquiry board which saved the other members also from almost certain expulsion. (TNG: "The First Duty")

Nicholas Locarno was played by actor Robert Duncan McNeill. Locarno was the inspiration for Star Trek: Voyager's Tom Paris. When the writers were trying to cast for the part, they could not find anyone that seemed to match McNeill's persona, so they eventually just asked him to read for the role, and he got the part. Reasons for not simply bringing back the Locarno character have varied; it may have been because they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of "The First Duty" during every episode of Voyager where Paris appeared. In interviews, the producers of Voyager claimed Locarno's actions made him irredeemable, making redemption unbelievable for audiences. (TNG Season 5 DVD) McNeill himself has stated that, despite their apparent similarities, Locarno and Paris are two very different characters. [1]

In the Star Trek novella Revenant, Nicholas Locarno joined the privateers of Celtic - a private starship - in 2380 where they boarded a vessel taken by the Borg. Locarno joined the boarding party, but it turned out that the away team had been sent there to be assimilated by the Borg. He subsequently allowed himself to be assimilated with the other members of the crew.